SMBLive's product, Workspace (BTWorkspace and Telus ePoint), is a service framework built on Windows Sharepoint service. This company was founded to fill the need of large telecom companies that had previously purchased large number of Sharepoint licenses, with the intent of launching web based applications to sell to their customers. After discovering the immense effort required to implement Sharepoint, most of these licenses were left unused. In comes SMBLive; Coincedently, the salesperson who sold most of these licenses to the telecom companies, is the same person that founded SMBLive; go figure.

Currently their workspace product is at version 2; version 3 was due removed, but as of this date, has not been launched. This does not surprise me. I spent a short time at this company as an Application Architect, under the supervision of the company's CTO, Antonio Chagoury, and experienced first hand their lack of discipline and communication. I had numerous unpleasant encounters with this individual, on the receiving end of screaming rages due to his lack of understanding of the issues at hand. It is my opinion that SMBLive won't be around for too much longer, not conducting business as usual anyways.

Corporate Details:

SMBLive
1960 Gallows Rd.
Tysons Corner, VA 22182

Update: October 8th 2007

I received a call from Matt Soska, SMBLive's CFO, requesting that I remove this blog entry. His reasoning was that I relayed a DATE for product launch, which by his account is considered "privileged" information; I reminded him that this date had been announced prior to my blog entry, and was also available on their CTO's personal blog. So I have edited this blog entry to remove said date, but I do not feel it necesary to remove it altogether. It's not like I went into detail about the fact that I confided to Matt Soska, CFO, and Matt Howard, CEO, that I had felt physically threatened not once, but twice, by CTO Antonio Chagoury, during "Brain Storming" sessions scheduled to discuss ongoing development. Not only was it recognized that the situation was "Unacceptable" and "Unprofessional", upon further investigation, other employees also complained about his attitude and demeanor when forced to interact with him. Both Matt's assured me that they would find a viable solution to this situation, that my position was not in jeopardy, and thanked me for having the "cajones" to speak up, when others had not. 

A week later, I was no longer needed.

Not only was that the last thing I expected to happen, apparanetly their "word" expires after 1 week, my wife was also a week overdue to give birth to our daughter! Thanks guys!

Tango Enterprises, based out of Vienna, Virginia, is a growing IT solutions company that has helped numerous small to medium sized businesses in the Washington DC area, implement custom technology solutions. Lead by their CEO, Scott Butler, this company's attention to detail help them deliver custom fit solutions to meet todays needs, and tomorrow's demands.

Tango has also developed products of their own, including ReCap. From Tango's website:

Any organization with mobile staff who currently use paper forms to report back to ther central office or home base can benefit from this highly customizable system. Virtually anyone who needs to collect and report field data to be integrated into an office back-end system, is now able to make this process easier, faster, safer and more accurate with improved back-end administration. These benefits apply to a wide range of services including home services such as pest control or landscape services, surveyors, home inspectors, insurance claims processors, plumbing or utility services, or real estate agents just to name a few.

If you are in the market for a technology company that will listen and react to your needs, then I highly recommend Tango. Let the dance begin!

Corporate Details:

Tango Enterprises, Inc.
421-A Church Street NE
Vienna, VA 22180

LogiXML offers several "Business Intelligence" products. I do use this term lightly; Although their products can help the inexperienced user to develop reports against datasource, it does not offer any capabilities that does not already come built in with Microsoft SQL, or other enterprise level database products.

The company's growth over the last year has been exponential, mainly due to its ability to integrate with MySQL, and some web based API's including Google Maps.

On a side note: I am currently involved in a civil case against this company and it's owner, Arman Eshragi, for lack of payment for work performed. I will update once this case has been decided on by a judge.

Corporate Details:

LogiXML
7900 Westpark Drive Ste T107
McLean, VA 22102

Welcome to the land of the free! Started back in 2001 by three very dedicated brothers, Haroon, Zeki, and Idris Mokhtarzada, Freewebs has become one of the most innovative free web hosting companies on the Internet today.

Based out of Silver Spring, Maryland (the heart of the east coast Silicon Valley, per Haroon), this company has had tremendous growth over the past couple of years. In 2006, they received capital funding from Novak Biddle Venture Partners and Columbia Capital, not that they needed, as they have been cash positive since the early days.

I spent some time working with these guys back in 2006, and it was an extremely pleasant experience. Not only do they focus on acquiring the best talent out there, they do their best to encourage creativity and camaraderie through team effort and a single vision; to be the best on the web. And their work shows this dedication.

Sporting one of the best "Site Builder" applications out there, enabling the average Joe to go from web-less to dot com in less than 60 seconds!  OK, thats a bit of an exaggeration, but still, building a site is quite a snap with their intuitive tools.

So if you have a hunkering to build a new web site, launch a blog, or even meet some new folks on Freewebs very own social network, then I would highly recommend a visit!

http://www.freewebs.com

Welcome to The Beltway Tech. This blog is dedicated to reviewing and discussing technology companies based in the Washington D.C. Metro area from the eyes of a technologist.

Although I have only been in this area for less than 6 years, I have discovered that this region is technology melting pot. From the numerous government contracting companies, to the large number of innovative private sector companies, Washington D.C. can certainly give the Valley a run for their money. In the coming months I will offer a candid look at different companies and the products and services they offer.

I welcome any and all suggestions and comments in regards to companies that conduct business in this area.

Mark Buckman